Hekmatyar:Afghans lose faith in Pakistan

Afghan political personality Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has said that Afghans have lost faith in Pakistan due to its impulsive actions. He told the Pakistani Express Tribune that Pakistan in its quest for US favors has alienated the Afghan people and Mujahideen.  Hekmatyar came down hard on Pakistan for its role in the US-led war against terrorism and said, 'Islamabad ignored even its own interests to please the US.'  “Its controversial policies have antagonized its own people,” he said, referring to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan-led (TTP) insurgency in the tribal regions.  “Today Afghanistan has become the hub of anti-Pakistan forces,” said Hekmatyar.  Hekmatyar also accused Islamabad of helping Washington to topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which it had acknowledged as a legitimate government, and earlier helped them to gain power there as a political system.  He also blamed Pakistan for the “massacre of 130,000 innocent Afghans”. The former Afghan official rejected claims by Washington and Kabul that Pakistan was fuelling the insurgency in Afghanistan.  The warlord said that Osama bin Laden’s death has not weakened al Qaeda. “Bin Laden’s martyrdom was a huge loss. But today al Qaeda has become such a strong organisation that it cannot be weakened,” Hekmatyar said.  According to him, the al Qaeda has now shifted its base from Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya and Somalia, where Aiyman al Zawahiri is successfully commanding the outfit.  Asked about the Afghan reconciliation process, the Hezb-e-Eslami chief conceded that his group has had several meetings with Afghan and American officials.  “We conveyed them our preconditions (for talks) and proposals for durable peace in Afghanistan,” he added. “If the US is willing, we can offer them an honourable exit from Afghanistan.”  Hekmatyar suspected that the slain chairperson of the Afghan High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was killed by progenies of the Communist-era Afghanistan, who were responsible for the killing of hundreds of religious and Jihadi leaders of the country.  However, the Hezb-e-Islami chief doesn’t think that Rabbani’s killing will affect the Afghan peace process.